09/09/2026
That time of year, please support the clubs where you ride.
https://www.snowmobilecolo.com/content.aspx?page_id=60&club_id=45117
93% of Colorado snowmobilers have never joined a club.
Here's what the other 7% did for you last winter. 👇
❄️ 20,000+ volunteer hours. Nobody got paid. That's chainsaw crews clearing deadfall in July, groomer operators running at 2am, permit paperwork, trail signs, and insurance renewals.
❄️ 3,000+ miles groomed by 28 clubs. For scale: that's farther than driving from Los Angeles to New York City — and it gets re-cut every single winter.
❄️ Worth about $800,000 a year. At Independent Sector's Colorado value for volunteer time (~$40/hour), those donated hours are the equivalent of roughly ten full-time jobs that nobody had to pay for.
Now here's the part most riders don't know:
👉 This helps you even if you never ride a groomed trail.
That club groomer isn't just packing a trail. It's often the machine that carries a search-and-rescue team to a stuck or injured rider out in ungroomed terrain. Your registration fee feeds Colorado's Backcountry Search and Rescue Fund — CPW has put $6.882 million into SAR teams statewide since 2023, and many counties used it to buy sleds, avalanche gear and rescue training.
The plowed trailhead. The free avalanche forecast on COTREX. The fact that the area is open at all. Somebody volunteered for that.
📈 AND THE TREND IS ACTUALLY GOOD NEWS
Volunteer hours are up — roughly 18,500 in 2022 to 20,000+ today
Colorado approved the first snowmobile registration fee increase since 2007 — 19 years — so clubs can finally replace aging groomers instead of nursing them along
The Keep Colorado Wild Pass brought in $42 million in its first year, and winter motorized use is now written into where that money goes
Snowmobile trail maps and avalanche forecasts are now free on COTREX
More people are giving more time, and the funding is finally catching up.
The one number that hasn't moved is the 93%.
💬 OUR ASK — and it takes ten seconds:
Drop your home trailhead or favorite riding area in the comments. We'll reply and tell you which club grooms it and how to plug in. 👇
And if you want to do more than comment:
🎟️ Enter the Sweepstakes — grand prize is a snowmobile. It funds our insurance and our scholarship. Link in the comments.
📍 Sept 26 — Snowmobile Kickoff, Sun Powersports, 945 Motor City Dr, Colorado Springs. 10am–4pm, free, whole family. CAIC and CPW will be there.
📍 Oct 23–24 — SnowMo Expo, National Western Complex, Denver.
7% shouldn't be carrying this alone. ❄️
